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Demand-driven, collaborative systems and processes for collecting structured information

Demand-driven, collaborative systems and processes for collecting structured information description/claims

This application claims priority to United States Provisional Application, filed Feb. 20, 2007, entitled “Method and system for collecting structured input and reviews,” which is herein incorporated by reference.

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to systems and processes for collecting demand-driven structured information. More specifically, the present subject matter relates to systems and processes for collaborative collection of structured information, such as recommendations, ratings and reviews, by electronically requesting and/or collecting input from identified responders.

Product and service recommendations and reviews can be beneficial to people when making purchase decisions. Currently, sites such as CNET.com and Amazon.com are popular for the recommendation, rating and review content they have. Other popular sites, such as yelp.com and epinions.com are wholly dedicated to providing a place for people to review, rate and recommend product and services. However, consumers of these recommendations, ratings and reviews often don't know which recommendations, ratings or reviews to trust as they are authored or provided by anonymous or unknown individuals. Further, what is recommended for one person may not be applicable to another, and so consumers have a difficult time ascertaining if the recommended, rated or reviewed product or service is best for them, specifically. Finally, for many products or services (or classes thereof), there is little to no recommendation, rating or review content in the public domain.

Further, structured product and service information with explicit attribute detail that results from demand-driven collaboration between two or more parties can be beneficial in a variety of ways, such as when making purchase decisions. Currently, people sometimes use email to ask friends for input on a product or service, and through a series of “reply-alls” a conversation takes place—however, the information is unfortunately not at all structured or attribute driven, nor does it leverage the information already available in the public domain (email is simply subject & body). Wikis are also sometimes used for collaboration between two or more parties, but the structure of the information is amorphous (a significant amount of effort is required to structure a wiki to be attribute oriented, and even then, it can not intelligently access information in the public domain), and the information itself is “supply driven” in the sense that supply driven refers to information that is supplied for an incentive (e.g., money, reputation, the greater good, etc), not “demand driven” (e.g., in response to a request) Accordingly, neither email, nor a wiki nor any other tool currently in commercial production is the appropriate tool for two or more parties to use when making a product or service recommendation, or providing ratings and reviews, in a collaborative, structured way.

Also, people often will consult with friends, family, colleagues, and others for product or service information, but will do so in an un-collaborative way, such as through in-person conversations, phone conversations, or individual emails or text messages. In these cases, not every member of the conversation can see or respond to what other members are saying or suggesting. Further, these methods are inefficient and unstructured; no existing tool is built or optimized for this behavior.

Therefore, there exists a clear need for a demand-driven method to collect collaborative, structured, trusted, and personalized product and service information to, for example, aid people in making product and service purchase decisions.

The above and other needs are met by the disclosed embodiments which provide systems and processes for collecting structured product and service information. Some of the solutions provided utilize email, phone, SMS (short message service), IM (instant messaging), social networks, or other communication platforms. Individuals access the systems and initiate a request for information, specifying (1) what they would like input on (including any relevant attributes), and (2) who they would like input from. The request is then distributed to the identified parties. As input is received and collected by the system, the individual can access the collaborative, structured input in an organized way, which may be wrapped with additional content (e.g., expert opinions, purchase options, etc.).

In one example, the disclosed embodiments solve these problems, at least in part, by utilizing an arrangement for collecting and collaborating around reviews. The arrangement includes a controller and associated memory in communication with one or more user computers via one or more network communication devices. The controller is adapted for: receiving an electronic request for a review from a first user computer, associating one or more potential responders with the request for a review using at least the information received from the first user computer or information stored in the memory, providing the request for a review to the potential user in an electronic format accessible via the user computers, receiving and organizing in the memory one or more electronic reviews from the responders, providing access to the organized electronic reviews to the requestor and to the responders in an electronic format accessible via the user computers, and updating the accessible organized electronic reviews in the memory as additional reviews are received.

In another example, the disclosed embodiments solve these problems, at least in part, utilizing a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for collecting and collaborating around reviews, the computer-executable instructions performing the steps of: receiving an electronic request for a review from a requestor, associating one or more potential responders with the request, providing the request to the one or more potential responders in an electronic format, receiving and organizing one or more reviews from the responders, providing access to the organized reviews to the requestor and to the responders, all electronically, and updating the accessible organized electronic reviews as additional reviews are received.

In yet another example, the disclosed embodiments solve these problems, at least in part, by a process of collecting structured product and service information, the process including the steps of: receiving an electronic request for a review from a requestor, associating one or more potential responders with the request, providing the request to the potential responders via an electronic format, receiving and organizing one or more electronic reviews from the responders, providing access to the organized electronic reviews to the requestor and to the responders in an electronic form, and updating the accessible organized electronic reviews as additional reviews are received.

In a further example, the disclosed embodiments solve these problems, at least in part, by utilizing an arrangement for collecting structured product and service information. The arrangement includes a controller and associated memory in communication with one or more user computers via one or more network communication devices. The controller is adapted for: receiving an electronic request for information a specific product or service, attribute thereof, or class thereof from a requestor via a first user computer, associating one or more potential responders with the request for information using at least the information received from the first user computer or information stored in the memory, providing the request for information to the potential user via an electronic format accessible via the user computers, receiving and organizing in the memory one or more electronic responses from the responders; and providing access to the organized electronic responses to the requestor in an electronic form accessible via the user computers.

In a still further example, the earlier stated needs and others are further met by still other disclosed embodiments that enable a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for collecting structured product and service information, the computer-executable instructions causing the arrangement to perform the steps of: receiving a request for information from a requestor, where the requested information is about a specific product or service, attribute thereof, or class thereof, associating one or more potential responders with the request, providing the request to the potential responders, receiving and organizing the responses, all electronically, and providing the organized electronic responses to the requestor.

In another example, the earlier stated needs and others may further be met by a process of collecting and collaborating around reviews, the process including the steps of: receiving an electronic request for information about a specific product or service, attribute thereof, or class thereof from a requestor, associating one or more potential responders with the request for information, providing the request for information to the potential responders via an electronic format, receiving and organizing one or more electronic responses from the responders, and providing the organized electronic responses to the requestor.

Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the examples will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following description and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The objects and advantages of the concepts may be realized and attained by means of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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